Can Miami drivers manage these new moves on the expressway? We’re about to find out

MDX releases video to educate drivers to new driving patterns on 836 Expressway

Miami-Dade Expressway Authority released a video and held community meetings to detail the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) traffic design coming to State Road 836, the Dolphin, in August. But motorists remain confused, skeptical.

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Miami-Dade Expressway Authority released a video and held community meetings to detail the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) traffic design coming to State Road 836, the Dolphin, in August. But motorists remain confused, skeptical.

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Can Miami drivers handle this Europization of one of our busiest roadways?

Already known for their independence on regular roads that run in one direction, now Miami motorists will be challenged to drive on the “wrong” side of the road — albeit briefly — and manage not to meet their fellow commuters head on.

A video released by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority shows what drivers need to learn and then put into practice — and fast, because the first part of the traffic pattern change starts Monday.

And while the video’s clean graphics demonstrate how motorists will have to cross over and drive on the left side (or opposite side) of the road under SR 836 at Northwest 27th Avenue and shows traffic moving orderly and smoothly past ominous “Do Not Enter” signs, we all know orderly and smoothly isn’t the Miami way.

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Is this London? Nope. Just a Diverging Diamond Interchange that will change the way we enter and exit the already frightful State Road 836.

A new video meant to educate — and presumably, allay fears — depicts visually the MDX’s plans to make Miami’s drivers do like Londoners do: Drive on the left, if only momentarily when entering and exiting the Dolphin Expressway.

But the Diverging Diamond Interchange — DDI, for short — has sparked confusion, some outrage and plenty of quips on social media. Miami drivers’ habits are the common punchline.

After much planning and construction delays — the Miami Herald reported that the Diverging Diamond Interchange design was to come to State Road 836, one of South Florida’s busiest highways, last summer — the new traffic pattern is nearly here.

The DDI is scheduled to open Monday morning, Aug. 13, at Northwest 27th Avenue and the other portion sometime in the fall at Northwest 57th Avenue.

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority touts the DDI design, part of an $800 million overhaul of the Dolphin Expressway that links Miami-Dade’s western suburbs with I-95 near downtown Miami, as one way to improve the flow of traffic that enters and exits SR 836.

Theoretically, MDX believes that having drivers briefly cross to the opposite side of the road as they pass under the expressway overpass — as in jolly ol’ England — will reduce traffic headaches and “collision points by eliminating left turns that cars would take in a traditional intersection.”

Try convincing skeptical Miami drivers that the plan holds water (as well as our streets do after summer rains.)

Sample comments on the thread of the video MDX posted on its Facebook page:

(The Facebook user who posted that bright spot lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to his profile.)

MDX has heard your concerns and they want you to know ... DDI is a done deal.

“It’s not confusing at all,” Juan Toledo, MDX director of engineering, said at a community meeting in Grapeland earlier this month, CBS4 reported. “The drivers are going to be channelized into where they need to drive.”

The MDX says, “in the DDI, drivers will cross to the left or opposite side of the road as they pass under the expressway overpass. It is important that drivers follow the traffic signals, directional signage and pavement markings while passing through the interchange.”

Because following “the traffic signals” and “directional signage and pavement markings” is how we roll in the Magic City.

“The DDI format is proven across the country to relieve traffic congestion, improve expressway access and increase safety for drivers and pedestrians,” MDX said in a statement last year.

A 2010 Missouri Department of Transportation study of a then-new DDI in Springfield was deemed “a huge success” that cut crashes by 60 percent, according to a report in Fortune.

Of course, the only thing Missouri and Miami shares is both names begin with an M.

Diverging Diamond Interchange; in Miami-Dade County? Sounds like a recipe for massive & pervasive traffic crashes. The operative phrase in the add is: "please pay attention;" a concept lost in most Miami-Dade drivers.